The peak body representing independent schools in NSW is trying to significantly undermine wages and conditions for teachers in non-government schools. The Association of Independent Schools (AIS) is currently negotiating with the teachers’ union (the Independent Education Union NSW/ACT) for a new multi-enterprise agreement (MEA).

The AIS is arguing that teachers in independent schools are overpaid, that some schools can’t afford standard wage increases and many are struggling to maintain enrolments. In order to keep all schools on the same agreement, including those with less capacity to pay, it has insisted that teachers’ 2015 wage increase be a one-off payment, not a percentage increase as is standard.

The AIS’s one-off payment proposal is for a single lump sum payment to be made to teachers next year. The payment would not increase the teachers’ base salary. The size of the payment would be calculated as a percentage of the teacher’s annual salary, with the AIS offering a payment worth 2 percent in 2015.

Also in the AIS’s deal is a push for major changes to the amount of out of class and holiday break work teachers are expected to do, along with more pressure to do extracurricular work without pay.

Though there has been widespread opposition to these attacks among teachers, the IEU has not led a campaign to galvanise the response. Instead the union told teachers that the offer of a 2 percent one-off payment in 2015 was “better than nothing”. As a result most members felt there was no option other than to vote yes to the proposed MEA.

However, union members in nine schools have ignored the union’s recommendation and voted against the agreement on offer; instead putting alternative demands for wage increases and improved conditions. The AIS is encouraging individual schools not to agree to any changes. Members in all nine schools are currently discussing how to force schools and the AIS to renegotiate.